The Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) has fixed a target of producing over 6.91 lakh bales of jute from 63,600 hectares of land for all five districts under Rangpur agriculture region this season.
“The farmers started sowing of jute seeds last month and the process has got momentum from this week in Rangpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat and Nilphamari district in the region,” said horticulture specialist of DAE Khondker Md Mesbahul Islam.
He said the farmers started showing more interests in jute cultivation since last year when the government declared jute as the national agricultural product and made use of jute sacs mandatory in various sectors.
“The farmers might exceed the fixed jute farming target in the region this time following its bumper production and lucrative price last year, increase in local demand and huge exports of jute products abroad,” he added.
According to the DAE sources here, the farmers will produce over 6.46 lakh bales of ‘Tosha’ variety jute fibre from 558,775 lakh hectares of land and 44,680 bales of ‘Deshi’ variety fibre from 4,825 hectares of land in Rangpur region this season.
The farmers have already sowed jute seeds on 15,016 hectares of land, 23.61 per cent of the fixed farming target, and the tender plants are growing excellent amid a favorable climatic condition.
The farmers are getting high quality jute seed easily from Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation, other recommended government and non-government organisations and dealers.
Jute growers Abdul Kudus, Musfikur Rahman, Sunil Kumar and Mamunur Rahman of different villages here thanked the present government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for ensuring supply of quality jute seeds at their doorsteps.
They also expressed gratitude for providing cost-free jute seed among the trained farmers and supplying ribbon-retting machines to ease jute-rotting process amid drought situation and upgrade fibre quality using ribbon-retting methods this season.
Talking to BSS, former Adviser- Agriculture of BRAC International for South Asia and Africa Dr MA Mazid said the farmers would get better jute production if they could complete sowing seed by this month end.
“The farmers can use the ‘Six Line Pick up Jute Seeding Method’ to cultivate jute using only 2 kg seed per acre to save huge quantity of seed when they generally use 2.5 to 3.5 kg jute seed per acre using traditional sowing methods,” he added.
Predicting a bumper jute production this time, Regional Additional Director of the DAE Shah Alam said the farmers were getting assistance from field level officials concerned to make the jute cultivation programme successful in the region.
BSS from Narsingdi adds: The farmers of the district have brought a vast area of land under jute cultivation in the current season as they were encouraged by fair price of jute last year.
Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) office sources said 3,411 hectares of land have been brought under the cultivation with the production target of 33,914 bales of jute during the current season.
DAE official said of the total land, Tosa variety was cultivated on 1,834 hectares of land, Masta on 34 hectares, Kalap on 970 hectares and local variety on 573 hectare of land.
Deputy Director of DAE Latafat Hossain said farmers have been showing more interest in farming jute this season as they got fair price of jute last year. Besides, the DAE also encouraging the farmers to cultivate jute, the cash crop by adopting modern technology.
Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) has taken measures to provide the farmers with High Yielding varieties of seeds, fertilizers and insecticides and other agri-inputs for jut cultivation.
